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Day 1339

Find the gourds

August 30th, 2015



If you look closely, you can spot four big pumpkin-like gourds and another that resembles a giant zucchini.

Day 1339

Queens Village solar

August 30th, 2015


Day 1339

Helical brickwork

August 30th, 2015



Day 1339

Barberz: Honorable mention

August 30th, 2015



This one doesn't qualify for full barberz status because the z-in-lieu-of-an-s (Queens Hottest Cutz) is not part of the barbershop's name.

Day 1339




According to some people gathered at the house, this sign is celebrating the birth of a couple's first child — after 20 years of marriage.

Day 1339

Lucky sewer inlet

August 30th, 2015


Day 1339

Bernadette and Mary

August 30th, 2015



Our Lady of Lourdes

This is the Bethsaida Spirituality Center at Our Lady of Lourdes Church.

Day 1339

Protesting canine rentals?

August 30th, 2015


Day 1339






I've come across banana plants in people's gardens here in New York before, but this is the first time I've ever seen one bearing fruit.

Day 1339

Proud to be an American

August 30th, 2015


Day 1339

1963 Cadillac Fleetwood

August 30th, 2015


Day 1339

WELCOME

August 30th, 2015


Day 1339

Black cherry tree

August 30th, 2015



Prunus serotina

Day 1339

An abundance of celosia

August 30th, 2015



Celosia can be found blooming in gardens across the city in a range of bright colors. The flower heads often look like feathery flames (as we've seen) or spiky bottle brushes, but there is also a popular variety, pictured above, whose heads are curled up like brains, the result of fasciation.

Celosia is grown as an ornamental here in the US, but, as its nickname "Lagos spinach" suggests, it's an important food crop in parts of Africa:

It is one of the leading leaf vegetables in south-western Nigeria . . . It is extremely important as well in southern Benin, also popular in Togo, Ghana and Cameroon, and recorded as a vegetable from several other West and Central African countries. . . .

Celosia is primarily used as a leafy vegetable. The leaves and tender stems are cooked into soups, sauces or stews with various ingredients including other vegetables such as onions, hot pepper and tomato, and with meat or fish and palm oil. Celosia leaves are tender and break down easily when cooked only briefly. The soup is consumed with the staple food of maize, rice, cassava or yam. The young inflorescences are also eaten as a potherb.
I've come across translations of the plant's name in a few different African languages:

Soko yòkòtò in Yoruba means "make husbands fat and happy" or “the vegetable that makes your husband’s face rosy".

Eri ami onu in Igbo means "you eat you suck your fingers" or "licking your lips while eating".

And one more, with a little extra info:
They propagate easily, require little care, and often reseed themselves year after year. Kaphikautesi, a name used for this plant in Malawi, means "eaten by lazy ones," a recognition that not only are the plants easy to produce but that they cook quickly and with little fuss or fuel.

Day 1339

Radial eggplant

August 30th, 2015